Portability - Part 2

In this edition, we take a look at some software to get you started on the road to portability. Just as a reminder, my definition of "portability" for these blogs is the ability to work on your most important data anytime, anywhere, on any computer...and to have all the computers looking at the most up-to-date versions of your work. The good news here is that all the software we are going to talk about today is FREE!!

Foldershare

I told you about this great software about 15 months ago. I continue to use it today on all my computers and it continues to be one of the most important parts of my portability scheme. There are two really good things about this program...first of all it is free...and second, it requires no additional hardware on your part. Foldershare is a Microsoft program that is easy to install and use. It runs continuously in the background, using the Internet to keep all your computers connected and sharing information. It's main job to keep your most important documents synchronized on the computers and files that you designate.

For instance, I installed my business accounting software on both my home and office computer. I use Foldershare to keep the accounting data in sync on both computers. So, I can work on my accounts at both my studio and home. As I save the data, Foldershare uses the Internet to keep the files in perfect synchronization. If the home computer is off, Foldershare will sync up any new data when the computer is turned back on. I also use it for all my spreadsheet and and word processing documents...but in this case I also have my laptop involved as I am always creating new data when on the road. I pick and choose what data is synched on what computer.

Another side benefit of Foldershare is that it acts as a backup of all your most important data. Lets say one of your computer's hard drives goes bad or your laptop is stolen. Your most important data is already backed up on one of your other computers. I also use it to continuously backup my wife's data from her computer to my external backup drive. It saves time and money as she does not have to worry about having a separate backup drive or remembering to back up her data on occasion. Foldershare can be downloaded for free from the Foldershare.com web site.

PortableApps

I discovered this incredible set of applications a few months ago and it has been an important part of my portability arsenal ever since. The PortableApps Suite includes several specially designed programs that are installed and run on your removable USB drive rather than your computer's hard drive. They include portable versions of Mozilla's Thunderbird e-mail program, portable FireFox web browser, a calendar/address book software, Sodoku, a complete portable version of all the OpenOffice Suite programs, including a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation program and several others...and a few other programs that you might find useful.

As I said, you install the program directly onto your portable USB drive so that the programs on it can be used on any Windows-based computer. I installed the programs on my own 2GB Lexar USB drive (about 1" long). After installation, I still have about 75% of my USB drive available for storage of the data created by these portable programs. I also store some other data on it that I use with software that is installed on all three of my computers. As an example, my Lotus Organizer software, which is my Personal Information Manager of choice, can't be installed on my portable drive, but the data can be and is. To make this work easily, I told each of my three computers to make my USB drive be recognized as Drive S:...and I told Organizer to access its data from drive S:. Very useful.

Regarding the software that comes as part of PortableApps, it is all good stuff. I think Thunderbird is a far better e-mail program than Outlook Express, and with its optional calendar
program, it even rivals Outlook itself. As far as the OpenOffice Suite goes, I have been using it for over a year on my laptop and I think it is fantastic. It is just as good as Microsoft's Office, it's free, and I can access and save data that was original created in Office. So having a portable version of OpenOffice is a real bonus.

I keep my USB drive in a certain pocket so I know where it is at all times when not plugged into one of my computers. So as I move from place to place, my major office-type programs are always with me. But, what if I lose my little USB drive? After all, it is only one inch in length. Fortunately, PortableApps comes with its own backup application, so I save my portable data to a backup hard drive every day so that if something happens, I can be up and running on another drive in no time. If I happen to travel someplace without my laptop, I can visit a cyber cafe and plug my USB drive into one of their computers and be up and running in a few seconds.

If all this sounds interesting, I suggest you head over to the PortableApps Web site to read more about it and maybe give it a try. You may discover that you like it a great deal. When you visit their site, you will see they carry several other free portable applications. In the next episode, I am going to talk about some of these other portable applications and a few others that are not listed.

Portability - Part 1

Over the years, my personal computer use has grown from one computer to three…one at home, one at my studio, and a laptop for use when I am on the road, which is very often over the course of a year. The dilemma I face, and that of every other person who uses more than one computer is which one stores the main files that you use?

For instance, which e-mail account do I use on one or the other? You can use one, but then you have your e-mail spread across two machines. For a while, I handled that by having three e-mail accounts…a solution that worked most of the time, but not always.

What about spreadsheets and word-processing documents? I always need access to them on all three machines, so what do I do when I have written a document on one machine, say my laptop, and I want to print it from my home computer. And what about my schedules…which of my three machines do I use for those?

Of course, I can make copies and have them on all three machines, but if I make a new entry on one, how to I get it to the other? My schedules have to match at all times if I am to be efficient and not miss a wedding or an art show.

So that is what this blog (and the next two) is about. I use the word “portability” here to describe the methodology whereby all my important work is available to me at all times on all three machines…and they are all current. No easy task…but it can be done and it is much easier than it use to be.

To achieve this portability, you need two basic things…the proper hardware and the proper software. No surprise here. So, in Part 1, I will focus on hardware, and then in Part 2, I will concentrate on software. Part 3 will cover more portable software that you can take with you anywhere.

Now, if you have only one computer then you don’t have to worry much about portability. But, stick around anyway because you just might find some neat tricks you will find useful now and in the future. But let’s take a look at two important pieces of hardware that lay at the heart of portability.

USB Memory

This is one of the slickest devices ever made to help you achieve portability. A USB memory device is sometimes called a memory stick, or a thumb drive, or a flash memory drive. They are very small, usually 1”-2” in length and feature a connector on one end that plugs into your computer’s USB port. They can hold anywhere from 256 MB all the way up to 8 GB of data. They are like a small portable hard drive, except there are no moving parts.

The downside is that they are actually slower than a hard drive, but none-the-less just as useful…and you can carry them in your pocket. Best of all, the prices have come down so low that anyone can afford one. I recently saw an 8 GB stick on sale for $28!

Primarily, they were used to copy or store one or more files so different computers can share them. But now, they can also hold so-called portable applications that can run all by themselves when plugged into your computers so you can carry not only your data but the programs that create and use the data. More on that in the next blog.

Portable External Hard Drives

These have been around for some time…except there is now a new breed of small hard drive that is extremely smaller than older drives and useful, especially in regards to portability. The best example of this new drive is the Western Digital Passport Drive. The drive is very small, measuring 5”x 3”x ½” in size. They run anywhere in drive capacity from 80GB up to 320GB and use a USB connector to plug into your computer. Prices? I paid $89 for my 160GB drive some months ago, and I saw just the other day that Costco had the 250GB drive for $129.

Besides being very small, the best part about these drives is you don’t need a separate power plug. The USB cable supplies enough power from the computer to allow the drive to work just fine. So one small cable provides both the power and data connection. Very handy, to say the least! (Be aware that some older computers cannot supply enough power to run these drives, but you can get a powered USB hub that will run them just fine).

If there is a drawback to these drives is that they only spin at 5400 RPM, while most standard hard drives run at 7200 RPM. But, quite frankly, I cannot see the difference in actual use. My large photo files seem to load just as fast off the portable drive as they do off my regular drive.

Now, many of you won’t need this extra external hard drive, but as a photographer, I found it most useful, especially when using Adobe Lightroom. This photo software works by keeping enhancements to a photo in a database rather than on the picture itself. I can now transport my photos (and their accompanying database) to any of my three computers without losing the changes made on a different computer. You can also use it to transport all your data, make backups, and even programs from computer to computer.

In part 2 of this series, I will explore some of the great software available to give you extended portability with your most important data.